Geithner Unveils Plan, Stocks Plummet

This morning Treasury Secretary Geithner unveiled the new $2 trillion bank bailout plan, which as previously reported counts on private investors to buy up some "bad assets" of troubled banks in order to unclog their pipes and get them lending again. The New York Times helpfully puts a graph on its front page to show how the stock market has fallen since "almost as soon as Mr. Geithner began speaking."

Paul Krugman hopes the plan's "a Trojan horse that smuggles the right policy into place." "Lacks Details, Taxpayers Hosed Again," says Stock Trading to Go. Firedoglake blames Geithner's lack of candor about such issues as the failed Maiden Lane III scheme to rescue AIG, a sort of precursor to the "bad bank" scheme that occurred while Geithner ran the New York Fed: "It's going to be hard to inspire confidence when there's no transparency."